Something different with watercolours

I subscribe to a number of social media feeds to see the recent paintings of artists whose work I admire. Some of the ones I follow produce beautiful paintings of cityscapes which may seem unusual since I paint mainly florals, landscapes and barns.

I’m attracted to cityscape paintings when the architecture, the weather, and the figures—everything in the painting—combine to transport me somewhere different. If that happens and the barrier between my reality and the painted alternative gets a little blurry, letting me see different sites and locales as though I were actually there, the painting is a winner. I paint many landscapes for the same reasons. I enjoy it when the scenes transport me someone or provide a sense of peacefulness.

This past week, I tried a couple of famous landmarks in Ottawa. This first one is the Supreme Court of Canada building. I had the pleasure of working 14 years for this prestigious institution and have fond memories of my time there.

The second is the Canadian Parliament building. This is the view that I had of that building when I joined the Supreme Court of Canada. How fortunate was I?

I struggled a lot with these two paintings. It took me more than a week to get started because I was experimenting with different colour schemes. I also wanted to create lots of fluidity with the shapes. So although it took me a long time to put "paint to paper", this painting forced me to think out a number of things that I've been doing naturally with landscapes. Or maybe I was just plain procrastinating?  Painting in this style is so different than painting barns which I love as a subject.  In any event, I will likely experiment some more with buildings as we are surrounded by beautiful cityscapes.

Both of the paintings above will be for sale at the Nepean Fine Arts League Show which starts today and ends on Sunday.

Danielle